Page 17 of Prime Time Romance

I’m suddenly feeling a little weak in the knees, and I wonder if maybe the car hit me harder than I thought.

“Are you okay?” Brynn’s fingers cup my elbow as she cranes her neck to peer up at me.

“I’m fine,” I lie, but her brown eyes study my face as if she’s not buying it.

“I’ve got an idea…. I wonder if…” Her eyes pan the street as if searching for something. “Actually. That’s perfect. Come on.” She grabs my wrist without further explanation.

We get back into the car and drive to the end of the main street. The last building before the road veers into the woods looks like an aluminum can flipped onto its side. Above it is a bright-pink neon sign that reads Pop’s Old-Fashioned Diner.

“You want to eat?” I ask, not entirely sure of her plan.

“This is Pop’s,” she says, as if I’m supposed to know what that means. “It’ll solve everything.”

I follow Brynn out into the parking lot and watch as she skips up all three front steps of the diner and opens the front door.

But I don’t follow.

This is too weird.

Even if Brynn is right and we are in Carson’s Cove, how the hell did we get here? And, more importantly, how do we get home?

Brynn waits for me at the entrance.

“Are you coming?” she calls, as if she’s about to walk into a Tim Hortons, not a fictional diner in a made-up town.

Maybe it’s the tone of her voice.

Or the casual way she props the door open with her hip.

Either way, it snaps me back to reality.

“How is a fictional diner in a television show that we’ve somehow landed in supposed to solve everything? Are you hearing yourself?”

She narrows her eyes back at me. “I have a plan, Josh. You need to trust me.”

“This is insane.” I stand rooted to the spot, the weight of this morning finally hitting me. “You should be freaking out right now, but you’re acting like this is totally normal. Like this is your secret fantasy come true.”

“Okay.” She draws out the word, walking slowly back down the steps until she comes to a stop in front of me. “You’re right. And I was freaking out earlier. I woke up on a lawn chair in a strange place. I have gone through an entire gamut of emotions ever since. And, like you, I have a whole boatload of unanswered questions, but I’d also be lying if I didn’t admit I’m a little curious. I have been obsessed with this place for years—at what is probably an unhealthy level. And now it’s in front of me, and it’s real.” She takes my hand, cupping her fingers over mine.

“I promise you we will figure this out. That’s why I brought you here.” She nods at the diner. “If this really is Carson’s Cove, we are at the place that will give us our answers. It’s where all the characters go when they can’t figure out what to do next. You tell your problems to Pop. He makes you a chocolate milkshake, and by the time you’re done, you know exactly what needs to happen.”

I only half believe her, but I follow her inside with no better idea of what to do instead.

The interior of Pop’s looks exactly like I expected for a place that calls itself an old-fashioned diner. The floors are checkered black and white. There’s a long white bar with red leather stools and rows of vinyl booths that look like they’ve been transported straight from the 1950s. Along the far wall sits an old-fashioned jukebox, although the music crooning out sounds more like late-2000s emo than ’50s rock. The whole diner smells like french fries and coffee.

There are no other customers. The place is empty save for a single guy standing behind the counter in a white apron and red-and-white-striped polo shirt.

When Brynn mentioned Pop, I pictured an old dude with gray hair and possibly a mustache. The guy behind the counter is in his twenties and has bleached-blond hair sticking up as if he went a little too heavy-handed on the gel.

“Is that Pop?” I ask Brynn, who is also staring at the guy.

Brynn turns to me, her eyes wide. “No. I have no idea who that guy is.”

We both turn back to him as he looks up. “Oh, good! You guys made it.”

6

Brynn